Fabrice Soulier

The 46-year old Frenchman is one of those very strong career pros, with a host of steady results on their resume and several million dolars behind them in career earnings.

For Avignon-born Soulier that means exactly $5,807,697 in live tournament winnings, and an extremely respectable 3rd spot in the all-time French money list behind Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Gropelier and David Benyamine,

It wasn’t always all about poker for Soulier, however. He directed TV series in his homeland before turning pro - the programmes Farce Attack and A Guy, a Girl being the best-known – and also worked with Grospelier on the French poker show NRJ PokerStars before moving to Las Vegas and focusing on his card skills. As he said himself in a interview in 2013, “ I needed more freedom, and I thought that poker would be the right way – and I love travelling.”

In his mid-30’s he won his first 6-figure payday - $103,260 for a 7th place finish in the 2005 WSOP $2K NLHE – and followed this up with a strong 5th place and $240,000 the following year in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars Main Event.

It was late-2009, however, before he really started to motor – picking up a 1st at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas and another in April 2010 at the EPT 6 Grand Final $2K event in Monte Carlo.

Buoyed by these successes, he went on to finish 3rd in that year’s Partouche Poker Tour Main Event, a healthy $701,320 in his pocket, and then made his entry into the big-time with a WSOP bracelet the following summer in the $10K H.O.R.S.E. Championship, good for $609,130 and a heap of good press.

The thoroughly-likeable Frenchman stated that he “played good” but also that “I was very blessed: you have to be to win such a tournament against the best players in the world.”

The WSOP seemed to agree with him and in the European version in 2013 he narrowly missed out on the Main Event title, coming second and taking home his biggest check to-date of $824,513.

A widely-traveled pro equally at home in the US as he is in Europe, Soulier also took down the EPT 10 €10K High Roller in Vienna last year-good for $542,342 and the win which thrust him into the French top 3 all-time earners bracket.

This healthy financial state of affairs certainly hasn’t gone to his head – he has often spoken of the need to use this poker money well and sensibly: “One thing I am very good at is protecting my bankroll - this is probably why I have lasted so long and am still here today!” said Soulier in a PokerListings interview, advice he feels a lot of the younger players could do worse than to follow!